On November 28th, 2010, unknown assailants set fire to the Salman Al Farisi Mosque in Corvallis, Oregon. No people were injured in the arson attack, but the building suffered fire damage. At the time of writing no arrests have been made in this matter, although a person of interest has been named, questioned and had his residence searched by police.

The majority of news outlets have framed the arson as a reaction to the attempted bombing of the Pioneer Courthouse Square Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, allegedly a Political Islamist jihad effort by Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, who now faces trial. Mohamud’s lawyers have indicated that they will argue during trial that the case is one of FBI entrapment. Mohamud apparently attended the Salman Al Farisi Mosque a number of times.

Politicians, the law enforcement and the media are as quick to condemn the arson as they are in failing to analyze its roots.

It is indeed likely that the Corvallis mosque attack was a misguided reaction to the thwarted bomb plot alleged by the FBI, but the ideological underpinnings of the Corvallis arsonist(s) likely go further back. The 2010 battles over the proposed Park51 Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York included anti-Muslim rhetoric that stereotyped all of Islam as comparable to the movements of Political Islam—an approach similar to reducing all of Christianity to Christian Reconstructionist ideology—and which frequently crossed over into a racist fear of the Other. Reasonable discussion about perceptions of Islam in America—or even specific criticism of certain statements by Park51’s imam—was simply drowned out by Right-populist noise. Increased anti-Muslim attacks followed.

The merging of racism and anti-Muslim rhetoric is further demonstrated in such claims as that Barack Obama is a “secret Muslim” and is not actually an American citizen—frequent themes within sectors of the Tea Party and similar movements. “Muslim” becomes a code for not truly American and, because discussion about American identity is so heavily racialized, also takes on racial connotations. Such rhetoric, no matter how irresponsible and incorrect, has a real impact on public opinion and creates a context in which actions such as the Corvallis mosque arson become more likely. All it then takes is a trigger.

The attack on the mosque was an act of anti-Muslim bigotry that made all people of the Muslim faith to blame for the (disputed) actions of one individual Political Islamist. It further connects to racism against people of Middle Eastern and North African decent, as well as against those from the Horn of Africa. Mohamed Osman Mohamud is a US citizen born in Somalia; members of the Portland Somali community have spoken out against the danger of his arrest leading to further xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Over a month has now passed since the Corvallis mosque arson. Rose City Antifa strongly condemn anti-Muslim prejudice that paints a historically-unsupported picture of Islam, and which plays into racism. We also oppose the blanket statement that Islam has always been a “religion of peace”—just as with Christianity, this has far from always been the case in practice. We continue to oppose xenophobic and racist beliefs in which people are lumped all together by reason of a supposed national, ethnic or racial affiliation. Our organization believes that we need more than simple knee-jerk condemnation of the most immediately visible violence. We need solid analysis of the origins of racism, that which enables it, and our own options for combating it. We take note of crossover between anti-Muslim organizing and the far-Right, such as the attempt of a participant in Eugene, Oregon’s Pacifica Forum to teach an anti-Muslim course at a local community college. We see our opposition to anti-Muslim bigotry as part of an overall antifascist project, and are happy to have successfully argued for the Anti-Racist Action Network to integrate opposition to Islamophobia into its Points of Unity at the Network Conference in Portland during July of last year. We intend to make good on this political commitment, by continuing to look at the intersection of racist and anti-Muslim organizing.